


An Interrogation

by aeriamamaduck



Series: Cyrodiil's Child [1]
Category: Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
Genre: Beating, Canon-Typical Violence, Police Brutality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-09
Updated: 2015-08-09
Packaged: 2018-04-13 17:40:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,916
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4531083
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aeriamamaduck/pseuds/aeriamamaduck
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Minerva Saturnius discovers the extent of a Legion Captain's hatred.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Interrogation

It had been two hours since they’d arrested her.

Minerva tried to recall the last time she’d seen Simplicia wandering the market, harmlessly asking passerby for coin. She could not remember clearly, but what was certain was that the old beggar woman was dead. Beaten and stabbed repeatedly and left to die next to her threadbare pallet in the back alleys.

Now Minerva found herself accused of Simplicia’s murder.

It had happened so quickly: Captain Adamus Phillida had arrived at the scene, where a crowd had quickly gathered. He’d spotted Minerva amid the throng of people and his eyes had suddenly turned colder than the Jeralls. The man had never liked her parents, her father telling her that their relationship with the man had been strained since their days in the Legion. Minerva had never guessed how deep that strain ran until Phillida had the guards drag her out of the crowd, accusing her of murdering Simplicia.

Her clothes had been confiscated, the guard handing her a sack cloth shirt and trousers that she pulled on as quickly as possible. They roughly pulled her into the interrogation room and pushed her onto a wooden chair, Minerva silent throughout the entire thing. All of it had to be a mistake. She was innocent and confident nothing would link her to the woman’s death.

Her breathing was shaky as she sat there, trying to pray in silence so she could somehow calm herself. She did not want to give in to her desire to rage at the guards for dragging her in here without a shred of proof. She did not want to show Phillida the same contempt her father had always shown him.

He finally entered, the cell door closing behind him with a loud bang. Minerva flinched at the noise, sickening at the quirk of Phillida’s mouth. “Minerva Saturnius. One of the most promising youths Cyrodiil has to offer and she turns out to be a common criminal.” He clucked his tongue and shook his head as if in disappointment.  “A poor, defenseless beggar. A wonder you even left her food bag alone. Then again it was filled with half-rotten scraps, so they would not have done you much good.”

Irritation flared inside of Minerva with every word out of his mouth. She fought to maintain a civil tone as she told him, “I don’t know how you came to the conclusion that I was responsible for that, Captain Phillida, but I can assure you–”

“Do you know what we found on the deceased that points in your direction? Bruises, fresh ones, throughout her body. Signs of a struggle,” he said, not waiting for her answer. “The wounds appeared to have been made with a dagger, and of course you have a ready access to weapons–”

“ _Everyone_  in the Imperial City has a weapon! You’re speculating, nothing more–”

“Are you contradicting the Watch Captain?”

“I am explaining that this accusation has absolutely no grounds–”

“And how will you explain the five bottles of skooma found in your home following your arrest?”

That caught her off-guard. What on Nirn was he talking about? “I…what?! My clear eyes and lack of apoplexy ought to be explanation enough, Captain!”

He shrugged the response away. “Oh I’m not accusing you of ingesting the swill…Merely of providing it to the unwary citizens of the Imperial City.”

“Such as?”

“Faelian,” Phillida replied with certainty, and Minerva felt the blood drain from her face. Faelian, that unkempt high-elf who wandered about begging for the means to pay for his habit when his lover, the Lady Atraena, would not pay for it. Phillida continued, “He has attested that you are his main supplier, and that Simplicia was another customer. No doubt you got tired of waiting for a payment and–”

Minerva finally exclaimed, “That’s a lie! All of it! Lady Atraena has known my family for years! I’d never compromise someone she cared for in such a vile–”

Suddenly she was rocked by an explosion of pain on the side of her face, and yet another on her head when the punch sent her falling sideways and on to the ground. Minerva lay dazed for a few moments, her entire jaw hurting when she lifted her head. She tasted something metallic and carefully touched the corner of her mouth. Her fingers came back drenched in blood. She raised her eyes to see Phillida smiling eagerly, his gauntlet splattered with blood. “Go ahead. Heal yourself. Then we’ll see if I don’t break your teeth next.”

Every part of her trembled with rage as she suppressed the tingle of magic rising in her hand. The beast was  _enjoying_  this. Though moving her mouth burned like fire, she growled. “I…You have no right— _URGH!”_

He shoved his steel boot down roughly on her back, pushing her down and slamming her already-aching head against the cold, filthy stone below her. She gasped as he began putting his weight down, hands scrabbling at the stone for some sort of purchase as she tried not to gag on the blood trickling into her mouth.

He hissed, “You… _impertinent…You will stay down as long as I see fit!”_

Minerva let out a strangled shout as his weight nearly crushed her, arms and legs moving in spasms as she grew terrified that her spine would snap. She began to lie rigid, the only sounds in the room her choked sobs. She closed her eyes and heard Phillida chuckle softly, and that sickened her most; that he thought she was giving in. “That’s right…Lie there and eat the filth off that floor. It’s no less than you deserve,  _Saturnius_.”

He pushed off her and she drew in a ragged breath, not daring to move. She flinched when Phillida barked, “Men! Get in here!” That was when she began to shake in horror. Of course it would not be over. No, he would draw it out,  _humiliate_  her. Three guardsmen entered, all of them boorish and cruel-looking. Minerva froze, knowing it’d be useless to shrink against the wall. Phillida continued to rage, “You and your parents, walking around as if you were truly entitled you the accolades rained upon them.” He reached down and yanked Minerva to her knees by the hair, a scream escaping her. “They were  _nothing_ , the spawn of bandits and slop farmers who had to take a name that was never theirs! How  _dare_  you be so presumptuous?” He tossed her back down and ordered, “Whatever you can to get a confession out of this wretch.”

The three of them began to converge around her, and Minerva pushed herself to her feet with the instinctual need to defend herself. Every bit of her yearned to fight back but she knew it would only make things worse. Dizzy and hurting, Minerva begged quietly at their grinning faces, “No…No, _please_ , for the love of Mara…”

The blow came so fast she had no time to put her hands up. The guard had slammed his gloved fist into her face, lights exploding in front of her as she fell backward into the wall. She slid halfway to the ground before a vicious kick caught her in the side and her scream caught in her throat. She resorted to shielding her head as punches and kicks rained upon her, her voice somehow able to cry out until she could only manage shattered gasps when it felt as if her lungs had burst.

The agony reached its zenith and Minerva’s arms began to slide away from her arms and her mind started to fade. The pain relentlessly followed her into semi-consciousness and there was a slight kick at her stomach. “Captain. She’s unconscious.”

 _I’m dying…It hurts so much, let me die,_  she begged silently.

Phillida furiously spat, “Get her in a cell. Work on her some more tomorrow.”

Two of them brutally pulled her upright, her feet dragging on the ground as she whimpered and tried to lose consciousness completely. For one brief moment after they threw her onto the hard ground she thought she’d sink into blessed darkness, but the pain persisted and she stayed conscious. One of them laughed darkly, “Damn, Ludd. You had to get carried away on her face? Takes the fun out of it.”

Her fingers twitched with disgust.

The one called Ludd replied, “Got a card game tonight and tomorrow anyway. Relax, she’s not going anywhere.”

She heard the cell door close shut and listened to their receding steps. Minerva lay there, tears streaming down her face as agony pulsed across her entire body. Certain she would die she prayed for a quick end.

She made it through the night. Her will proved stronger than the base desire to give up and she summoned what strength she had to send tiny healing pulses through her body as the hours passed, and eventually the pain was manageable to the point where she could slowly move across her cell and crouched in the darkest corner. She had no illusions about completely repairing the damage done to her body, knowing Phillida intended to keep her in here until she was beyond help.

Minerva grimaced with every breath and kept trying to heal what she could. An hour later she could at least turn without gasping in utter pain, and guessed she had healed a rib. That was a start. She turned to the small rectangles of light on the floor, and realized it was dawn.

She took stock in herself, carefully touching her mouth and feeling the dried blood over her jaw. She knew her eye was swollen shut and didn’t dare touch it. Something was likely wrong with her kidneys, and she guessed more than one rib had splintered.

She then remembered that they had planned on returning today and wished she  _had_  died, curling into a tight ball and hoping this was just a vivid nightmare.

She started to sob quietly when she heard the dungeon door open and close, hearing one set of echoing footsteps. They ended in front of her cell and Minerva raised her gaze to see that it was Phillida. He looked displeased that she had been able to move and she remembered his threat if she attempted to heal herself and shook.

He smirked and said to her, “You’re lucky, Saturnius. I received orders to increase security within the city, so you won’t be receiving visitors today.” She would have sagged in relief had she not been so terrified of this man. He gazed at her, voice dripping with smugness as he added, “What I wouldn’t give for your father to see you now.”

Her fear faded, replaced by rage so strong it felt as if every muscle in her body had hardened into steel. The monster had wanted her humiliated, begging for mercy, but all she could feel towards him was hate. She wanted to reach through the bars and throttle him, to laugh in righteous fury as his face turned blue beneath her hands.

Instead Minerva fixed him with a stare, refusing to flinch or be cowed by what he’d done to her. “You’re the one he’s seeing,” she said, her voice sounding cold as a grave.

The smile melted off of Phillida’s face and he glared at her before turning to walk away. The door shut loudly and Minerva hid her face in her knees, her hard sobs sending fresh waves of pain through her.


End file.
